Weekend in Photos

I spent this past weekend in Portland with Brittany- mostly drinking good things, taking silly pictures of ourselves, and geeking out over Michael Pollan, who we got to see speak on Saturday night! Once home yesterday I made a quick batch of amaranth cereal and spent most of my evening on the couch with chubby Luna. Pretty darn perfect. Also- what do you think of the new layout!? My good friend Ellie designed the header for me, and I am over the moon in love with it.

Reading List:

Top to bottom:

1. Edible Stories: A Novel in Sixteen Parts, Mark Kurlansky. I just started reading this. It gets mixed reviews, but I'm enjoying it so far. Many of the characters and themes are carried throughout the book and the short story format works really well for bus reading.

2. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver. My absolute, all-time favorite book. I re-read it about three times yearly. It's a quick and easy read, but I just love it more every time I finish it.

3. Pacific Feast: A Cook's Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine, Jennifer Hahn. This beautiful book was a gift from my love Becca. The guides and recipes cover everything from weedy greens to shellfish to edible trees. I'm quite smitten with it.

4. Take a Walk: 100 Walks Through Natural Places in the Puget Sound Region, Sue Muller Hacking. While this book covers a lot of smaller, more urban parks and trails- it also offers up some really great options for easy day hikes and beaches. I'm excited to use it for new weekend running routes.

5. The Last Fish Tale, Mark Kurlansky.  "...provides a delightful, intimate history and contemporary portrait of the quintessential northeastern coastal fishing town: Gloucester, Mass., on Cape Anne. Illustrated with his own beautifully executed drawings, Kurlansky's book vividly depicts the contemporary tension between the traditional fishing trade and modern commerce..."

6. All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms, David Arora.  This guide is eccentric, if not extremely informative. David Arora has a reputation for being a little bit nutty- and while the cover of this book is on the odd side, the full color photographs and serious details within make it well worth checking out.

7. The Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship and Discovery in the Alaskan Wild, Lynn Schooler. "Schooler, who has worked for many years as a guide in the unpredictable waters of the Alaska Panhandle, has distilled a life of unusual intensity into his first book. The story centers on the renowned nature photographer Michio Hoshino, a client who became a friend, and the two men's ongoing search for the elusive glacier bear, a blue variant of the North American black bear."

 8. Bradt Travel Guide: Iceland, Andrew Evans. Spring of 2012! This guide is the best I've found so far- and does a really great job of covering a lot of what I hope to experience.

Creatures, Identified!

Last week I made a post with three pictures of "unidentified creatures".  Two of them were easy enough to figure out- but not one person guessed the first one!  So, in reverse order we have:

Creature #3:

Kombucha!

Creature #2:

Luna!  (One of my rescue kitties.)

And finally: Creature #1:

Hazelnuts!

Weird, huh?  I have this really odd habit of collecting plants and creatures (mostly plants, sometimes a snail) when I've had a glass of wine or two and am walking somewhere.  Most often I find sprigs of rosemary or lavender in my purse the next day, but sometimes it will be a weird seed pod or something like the hazelnuts that I'm not even sure of at first.  And now we know!

Oh, and Killary/Ghilly/Hilary was the winner!  I'll send you an email and get your mailing address, loverface.

Flying Cats

I know!  All I've been posting lately are pictures- but I can't stop laughing at this!  I stood on a chair to get this angle- and the little rascal totally hammed it up for me. 

Photo collage created via Picnik.  Thanks Becca!

Our Shelter Cats

I just realized that I've never posted any pictures of Ollie, aside from the day we adopted her.  She has settled in so well.  She was really unhealthy and scared when we got her, and she has done a complete 180 in the past few months.

I honestly can't say enough good things about adopting adult cats.  Luna was a year and a half when we got her (now two), and Ollie is just over four.  We don't know much of Luna's history other than she was picked up as a stray- but she seems to have been well socialized.  She had only been at the shelter for two weeks when we adopted her in October.  Ollie's story isn't quite as lovely, but it makes me feel so good that we took her home.  She was found in the woods near a local hiking area (meaning she was dumped) and had been at the shelter for nearly seven months when we adopted her.  She didn't know how to play, had signs of bad previous mite and flea infestations, hated to be touched on her backside, and was very nervous and mean.  We've only had her since February, but her personality is so wonderful already.  She is playful, affectionate, goofy, vocal, and bossy, just like a healthy happy cat should be.

I know that it's tempting to adopt kittens or get free animals on Craigslist- but if you are thinking about adopting- please, please, please check out a local shelter first.  Shelter animals come with all of their vaccinations and are spayed or neutered before going home.  "Free" animals don't come with any of these guarantees and often end up costing much more in the long run.  We did have to be patient and understanding with both of our cats- but with lots of love they are both absolute joys.  We haven't had any issues with them- behavioral or otherwise.  I can't imagine that someone ever didn't want them.

And Luna being super helpful, as always. 

Making a Giant Dirty Mess On My Patio AKA Potting Starts!

So, I guess I shouldn't call something an actual success until it's actually successful.  My oh so successful seed starts?  Yeah, not so much.

Luckily last Friday Seattle Tilth was having their "leftover" plant sale- which worked out perfectly for me.  $2 starts, with lots of really fun and interesting varieties.  I don't know why I did this- but I ended up buying a significant number of tomato and pepper starts- more or less spacing out the fact that our patio gets only morning sun.  We are actually trying to move to a different (larger) unit in our building right now, so I'm hoping if that comes through it will mean more sun.

I took half of the day off from work today.  For no real reason other than it sounded like a nice idea.  Sometimes you just need a little time to do nothing.  I came home, took a nap with Luna, and then in an effort to continue avoiding my math homework- made a crazy dirty mess all over my patio, which luckily resulted in a few plants in pots.  I ran out of potting soil, so the rest will have to happen this weekend.

   

My un-official plant list at the moment?  Potatoes (which have been growing for a while- they're in the black and white plastic grow bag and doing SO well), pineapple sage, peppermint, fennel, strawberries, two varieties of blueberries (another that I've had going for a while, also doing great!), cat mint, lavender from last year, and three varieties each of tomatoes and peppers.

What are you growing this year?  Any suggestions for full-sun plants that aren't getting full sun?

Seed Giveaway Winners!

Seed winners are: Becca, Beeswax aka Idil, and KibitzKnitz!  I know how to hunt down Becca and Idil, but if the lovely KibitzKnitz would send me her address at renai.marie@areyoumyghost.com I will get your seeds to you!

And just so this post has a little more content- here is my current favorite picture.  It makes me laugh every time I look at it.  This is basically Ollie's dream come true.  Luna locked out on the porch, with Ollie holding her paper bag hostage.  Both of their expressions are priceless.  Mean, mean little kitty.

Cats and Plants

Oh yes.  We did it again.

 

Her name is Ollie.  She had been at the shelter for nearly 8 months, and is teenie tiny and quite affectionate.  Luna is obsessed with her.  We were afraid she'd be grumpy about having a new cat in the house- but instead she follows her everywhere and tries to snuggle her or pounce her every chance she gets.  Ollie has yet to show much enthusiasm about either activity.  Poor Luna doesn't seem to understand what all of the hissing and growling is about. 

I gave in to our insanely early spring and bought a few seed packets last week.  Ballard Market is currently carrying a small selection of Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, and I ended up buying organic red Russian kale, organic Genovese basil, and two "blend" packets- one of hot peppers, and another of heirloom tomatoes.  Jalapenos were our most successful plant last year, so I'm excited to see how a mixed variety will do this year.  I also went to Costco with my mom last weekend, and picked up some Northwest grown blueberry bush starts.  They're two different varieties, but I'm too lazy to get off my butt at the moment and see which.  Hah!  Notice all of the cherry blossoms taking over our street?  They have gone crazy everywhere, and they make our ugly street a bit more lovely in their own way.

Aside from that- my weekend consisted of a dance party in the middle of Theo's retail floor, a lot of gin and tonic, chocolate wafers with lavender and sea salt, dressing up as a "Presidential Mustache Cupid" (no pictures!), the weirdest e-mail ever, a blanket fort birthday party, and lots of Matao snuggles.  I don't have a thing to complain about!

Discovery Park, A Caprice Kitchen, and LUNA!

Today was perfect and then some.  Somehow in the four and a half years that I've lived in Seattle I have managed to never visit Discovery Park.  Never mind the fact that it is oh... a whole two or so miles from where I currently live.  That is irrelevant.  I don't own a car, and that's the only excuse that I really have.  That is it.  It is the worst excuse ever.

My mom was in town the past few day, so she picked me up this morning and we drove allllllll the way to Magnolia to meet up with my aunt Fran to hike around for a bit.  We did a quick mile or so hike through the woods, out to the beach, and then wandered down the beach until we ran out of walkable area.  Ugh.  I was in heaven.  This is the kind of thing that I miss more than anything about Alaska.  The city is exhausting when you feel so separated from nature all the time.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

After becoming sufficiently chilled, hungry, and grumpy, we made our way back to Ballard, and up the hill to A Caprice Kitchen.  This restaurant and myself had a bit of a tough start, but I have so much faith in the concept that I continue to go back.  Tonight solidified it for me.  This is my favorite restaurant in Seattle.  Anne is always recognizable in the kitchen by her red shirt and wonderful hair, and tonight she came out to talk to us when we were pestering our server about the sauce that paired with our pork and fig empanada.  This is the kind of restaurant that I want to have some day.  It's small and cozy, the menu changes every week, it is never loud, and you never feel rushed.  Everything is locally sourced (aside from the coffee and tea, which is expected and easily forgivable).  Sharing three, or all of the small plates is my favorite way to enjoy their menu, and aside from a few misses- I have fallen hard for just about every bite that lands in my mouth.  This is one of the only restaurants in Seattle where I will happily eat everything on the menu without a second thought.  I am hardcore in love.

I am also ridiculous.  Look at how cute Luna is!  She is like a furry little ravioli with claws.

Critter Crat

It's official.

 

 

This spoiled rotten little monster beast who bites and chirps and sits in the middle of everything I work on has turned me into a cat person.

It's awful.

More on Paper Grocery Bags

Oops.  My b.

When I got home tonight Luna reminded me of the other, better use for paper grocery bags:

Silly me.

And yeah, she hates me... and the flash.

Link Love!

This is really photo heavy for some reason.  Who cares!  My favorites right now:

- Ryan over at Go Means Go just posted an article on putting together your first alleycat that covers a lot of great points.  Ryan has organized a lot of really well put together races and is a good resource if it's something you're interested in doing.

- Thanksgiving Tables via Flickr on Re-Nest.  Agh!  I am a nerd.

 

- This womans photography is fantastic.  Garden of Knowledge is hands down my favorite set.

 

- Rubber Sidewalks Rescue Trees.  This is so cool, and totally genius.

- The Worst Photo Shoot of All Time.  Hahahaha.

- Vegan Pumpkin Pie With Gingersnap Cookie Crust and Bourbon Sauce.  OH HI.  I just died.

- I made these last week.  Matao liked them, but I thought they were much too hard.  The flavor was amazing though, so I think I'm going to try re-making them with eggs this time.

- Hahahaha.  Not a link.  But still.  I love Married to the Sea.

- A really wonderful article about how photographers got their toughest shot.

- Daily Drop Cap rules.   This is obviously my favorite.

- This makes me feel so sick every time I look at it, yet it's completely beautiful in a really horrific way.

 

"These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking."

- And finally, on a much less depressing note, here's Luna, again.  She has been INSANE this week.  This isn't her yawning... it's her trying to eat Matao whole.  Aside from that, she's decided that everything that I eat is hers too.  She helped herself to my lemon/ginger/blueberry muffin that lovely Becca made me, she took a bite out of the peanut butter falling out the bottom of my PBJ the other night, and yesterday she snatched a tortilla chip right out of my hand.  What a dear.